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Wis. Gov. Walker's opponents submit recall petitions

Groups seeking to recall Gov. Scott Walker
submitted nearly twice as many signatures Tuesday as required to
force an election, an overwhelming number that may make an election
later this year inevitable.

But Walker's opponents still must transform public outrage over
his pushback against unions into actual votes to oust him from
office. If the governor is worried, he's not showing it: As
petitions were delivered to election officials, he was out of state
raising money to defend himself and the agenda that has made him a
national conservative hero.

The 1 million signatures that United Wisconsin, the coalition
that spearheaded the effort along with the Democratic Party, said
were collected far exceeded the more than 540,000 needed. The
effort stemmed from anger over Walker's aggressive moves during his
first year in office that included effectively ended collective
bargaining rights for nearly all public workers.

Petitioners on Tuesday also were submitting about 300,000 more
signatures than were needed to trigger a recall election against
Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch. Between 23 percent and 56 percent above
the number of signatures needed were also collected to force recall
elections of four Republican state senators, including Majority
Leader Scott Fitzgerald.

The massive number of signatures against Walker - 85 percent
above the level needed - could make it nearly impossible for
opponents to successfully challenge enough of them to stop an
election.

"I don't know if it's insurmountable, but it would be extremely
difficult," said Joshua Spivak, a recall expert and senior fellow
at Wagner College in New York. In the 2003 Gov. Gray Davis recall
in California, petitioners also turned in almost double what was
needed - 1.6 million - and only about 18 percent were tossed,
Spivak said.

About 46 percent would have to be removed in Wisconsin for the
election not to proceed.

Scott WalkerJ. Scott Applewhite/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Mike Tate said given the
number of signatures collected, Walker shouldn't seek delays and
instead let the election proceed.

Walker's campaign spokeswoman Ciara Matthews said he was not
available for comment Tuesday.

The governor's supporters have been training volunteers on how
to vet signatures and they plan to create a database where names
will be entered and verified. Walker has already successfully sued
the state elections board to require it to do a more extensive
review of the signatures than originally planned.

The Government Accountability Board has said its review will
take 60 days or more and it will go to court this week to seek a
delay beyond the 31 day review required under the law.

Tate said he didn't expect a Walker recall election would happen
before May. Walker has been saying he thinks it will be in June.

Recalls have become common in Wisconsin since the political
tumult of 2011 that saw Walker and Republicans pass the collective
bargaining changes, one of the country's most restrictive laws
requiring photo identification at the polls, and a budget that
included an $800 million cut to public schools. The opposition
started with massive protests and then grew into organized
campaigns first to recall state senators and then Walker himself.

Last summer, six Republican state senators and three Democrats
faced recall elections. Two Republicans lost, leaving the party
with a narrow one-vote majority in the Senate.

The Walker recall couldn't officially be filed until after he
had served a year in office, an anniversary that was hit earlier
this month.

But he hasn't been waiting around to see if the recall will be
successful.

Walker ran his first campaign television ad the night before
recall petitions hit the street in mid-November. He's been on air
nonstop, making arguments that while some of the decisions he made
last year to balance a $3.6 billion state budget shortfall were
difficult, the state is in a better financial position and will
prosper in the long run.

Walker has been raising money at a furious clip. He was hosting
a $2,500 per-person fundraiser in New York City along with Maurice
"Hank" Greenberg, the founder and former CEO of American
International Group. AIG was one of the world's largest insurance
companies that nearly collapsed in the fall of 2008 at the height
of the financial crisis and received about $180 billion in bailout
aid from the government.

Walker has also recently attended fundraisers in Texas, Kentucky
and Tennessee. He is taking full advantage of both the conservative
star persona built as he put Wisconsin at the center of the
national labor rights debate and a quirk in state law allowing
those targeted for recall to ignore normal contribution limits
until an election date is set.

As of mid-December, he had already raised $5.1 million, with
about half of that coming from out-of-state donors.

Democrats, who have no candidate raising money to challenge
Walker, concede they will not be able to match him dollar for
dollar. Instead, they are counting on the same type of enthusiasm
that drove the petition drive to translate into the campaign.

The two most prominent Democrats, former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold
and retiring U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl, have repeatedly said they aren't
interested.

Even with that question looming, Democrats spent Tuesday
celebrating.

The number of signatures collected represents about 23 percent
of the state's eligible voters. In the 2010 election, Walker
garnered just over 1.12 million votes on his way to victory over
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, who got about 1 million votes.

Barrett issued a statement that praised petition circulators but
did not indicate whether he would enter the race.

"It's time for a new direction that will heal our fractured
state and move Wisconsin forward again," Barrett said.

The only other successful recall of a governor in the nation's
history besides Davis was North Dakota Gov. Lynn Frazier in 1921.